Reflections on a forgotten song of peace on Earth

11:02 PM,
Dec. 14, 2013

Written by

JJ Abernathy
Music Times

The Rev. Edward Hamilton Sears is known as the Unitarian pastor who composed the beautiful Christmas carol "It Came upon the Midnight Clear." Indeed, Sears, like a stalwart sentinel, created this song to herald a new day of peace and joy.

When he rendered the hymn a poem, he titled his masterpiece "Peace on Earth." Sears (1810-1876) composed this carol in 1849 in Massachusetts, and it was published in 1850 in "Christian Register." Sears' contemporary Richard Willis, who studied music in Europe with Felix Mendelssohn, provided the inspiration behind the musical adaptation.